


Day 232

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [232]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26019940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [232]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 232

Nalanna waited for nightfall to come out of her hiding place in the Alienage. After poor Jonas had stumbled into the Hanged Man, dying from a poisoned wound, the Carta had been hounding her at every turn. Some had even attacked her in broad daylight, in the middle of the street! They had been warned before entering Kirkwall that the templars were especially aggressive, and tolerated Warden mages only grudgingly, so she had been reluctant to bring her full power to bear against them in the crowded market. She had made a ‘tactical retreat’ to the Alienage and ditched her robes to try to blend in with the other elves.

A group of elves had moved to intercept the dwarves when they approached and the Carta had broken off their pursuit. It seemed the elves and dwarves of Kirkwall did not get along very well, fortunately for Nalanna. As long as she stayed here, she would be safe. But she couldn’t hide here forever, she needed to get out of the city and make her way north to the Anderfels.

The first thing she had done was pinch some laundry from a line to use as a disguise and shoved her Warden robes in a sewer grate. She had also rubbed mud on her face and in her hair to try her best to disguise herself. It was not perfect, but it would have to do. 

As soon as the sun went down the streets emptied, Nalanna didn’t like seeing city streets so empty. It felt wrong. Her town was hit by a plague before she was taken to the circle, and seeing empty streets always reminded her of those last few days before the templars came for her. 

She tried to keep to the shadows as much as possible as she made her way through Lowtown. She didn’t get far before the Carta found her again. Despite her disguise they attacked her on sight. The bodies she had passed along the way suggested they were attacking elves on sight. Nalanna was filled with a burning rage at their senseless murder and this time, she didn’t hold back with her magic. She led with a cone of ice that froze them in place, then she launched a stonefit to shatter as many as she could. She infected one of the survivors with a virulent walking bomb and then tried to put some distance between them.

She looked and spotted dozens of dwarves leaping into the street from the rooftops. There were too many for her to face on her own. Her only hope was escape.

There was a merchant’s cart up some nearby stairs that was filled with cloth scraps and other flammable refuse and Nalanna took cover behind it. As the Cata advanced she lit the lot on fire and pushed the card down the stairs towards the Cata. The dwarves scattered, most of them avoided the flaming cart but the one she had infected was too slow and was crushed under the wheels. He exploded spraying fluids and infecting all his nearby fellows.

Nalanna took the opportunity to make a break for it. She set up a wall of ice to slow pursuit and ducked down a side alley. She ran until she couldn’t run anymore, then she found a pile of garbage to hide under. Jonas’s letter said that Janeka and the Carta were planning on making a deal to free an ancient Darkspawn from his prison in the hopes it would make peace with the world above. Nalanna didn’t know what would give them the notion that it was a good idea but Alic had mentioned that the Darkspawn could control Wardens. Nalanna supposed they must have succumbed. If this Darkspawn was as powerful as that, it would be disastrous for the order, and the world if it were to get free. 

Nalanna waited only long enough to be sure she had lost her pursuers before emerging from her hiding spot once again.


End file.
